Company to complain about competitors' calls

A company supplying electricity to homes in Queenstown and Central Otago says it is being targeted in a systematic campaign to discredit its business and undermine its custom.

Pulse Energy is preparing a complaint to the Electricity Commission detailing a raft of apparently deliberate attempts to stop people switching power suppliers.

It says competitors rang customers to incorrectly claim Pulse's meter technology was faulty, that its prices were misleading, and that it would not last long as a business.

Others were convinced to postpone their switch for a month, which was long enough for their "intention to switch" form to expire and leave them stuck with their old provider.

Pulse Energy sales and marketing manager Ashley Church would yesterday not name the two competitors in the complaint.

Nor would he say where they operated.

His company had no issue with robust competition, but the recent incidents described by customers had gone too far.

They would be referred to the Electricity Commission, he said.

Earlier, Pulse chief executive Dene Biddlecombe said he was still concerned by reports some would-be customers were being "coerced" into staying with their original retailer.

He said he wanted the switching rules tightened so that switching customers were not hounded by the company they were leaving.

"People are being pressured into staying with their original supplier through a series of aggressive and intimidating tactics ..." he said.

Mr Church said a code of conduct to ensure everyone in the market behaved ethically, which was already being discussed by some companies, might be better administered by the Commerce Commission.

Last year, TrustPower claimed Pulse Energy had switched 35 of its Central Otago customers without consent.

Pulse said it only switched customers who accepted their contracts.

TrustPower community relations manager Graeme Purches said companies should be able to contact customers planning a switch, if only to ensure they actually wanted to change providers.

"Given the history of poor consumer information provided by some retailers, such as Pulse, it would be remiss of us not to contact customers to check whether they had actually asked to switch in the first place, and if so, check that they are actually going to save money," he said.

Auckland-based Pulse Energy has been selling electricity since 2007.

It has about 6000 New Zealand customers and is considering moving into the Dunedin and Southland markets.